From the nineteenth century to the present, the Alinari Printworks, or Stamperia d’Arte, one of the few in the world still extant, prints
limited edition reproductions of extremely high quality, using the old artisan method of
collotype on paper and on silver plate from photographic images.
Collotype is a photomechanical printing process that can reproduce color images without the use of any form of mechanical screening typical of industrial printing. A glass plate (the matrix) is covered by a film of a special gelatin. After being baked for several hours in a special oven, the plate is ready to be exposed by placing the negative of the picture to be reproduced on top of it.
The plate is then hand inked and placed in the machine for contact printing on paper. Every print is the fruit of various passages of color regulated by the skill of the printer.
Technically only a limited edition of between 300 and 500 copies
per plate can be printed. After this the gelatin film deteriorates and high quality prints can no longer be obtained. Every single collotype, with an impressed mark and number, is therefore a
unique one of a kind example in quality and elegance.
Collotypes reproduce works of art in color (paintings, sculpture, frescoes, mosaics) as well as one- or two-color drawings chosen from the masterpieces of the history of art of all times: from Etruscan and Roman painting, through the creations of the great masters, to modern art. Photographic images, both vintage and modern, can also be printed with the collotype technique, from daguerreotypes to modern
photographs.

The Alinari Printworks and the Photographic Laboratory are located in the historical Fratelli Alinari premises in
Florence, and can be visited upon appointment.Alinari COLLOTYPES and PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS can now be acquired simply by plugging into the
ON-LINE SHOPPING section.